London 1

Austin London
Mrs. Baker
Literature Analysis
18 March 2015
Cultural Civil War
As expected in the decade following World War I, both the western nations and those
defeated in the wars conflict became gold mines in the literature of aftermath. A literary war
broke out in the 20s. While some freedoms were expanded in the Roaring Twenties others
were restricted. The inventions of the new age, newly implemented ideas and creations to make
life easier, all apart of the 20s. The 20s can often be referred to as the war between citydwellers and small-town residents. Whether it be between Catholics and Protestants or whites
and blacks, all are arguments of obsolete family values, but are some of the most important parts
of the Roaring Twenties. The 20s introduced an interesting new view on females, tension with
Prohibition, and a new era of entertainment.
A large portion of the Roaring Twenties that stood out to most novelists were the, as
Joshua Zeitz put it, the flappers "Flapper" the notorious character type who bobbed her hair,
smoked cigarettes, drank gin, sported short skirts, and passed her evenings in steamy jazz clubs,
where she danced in a shockingly immodest fashion with a revolving cast of male suitors (Zeitz
137). A new style of women was emerging, new habits, hair styles, dress styles, styles all around
were changing. However some kept their style, as Agatha Christie wrote Now I am oldfashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern
neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which

London 2
would make a billingsgate fishwoman blush! (Christie 57). With a newly introduced figure of a
women, a leap in the femininity was born.
The main source of the tension during the 20s was the Prohibition, feeling as though
their rights were stripped from them many Americans sought violent and illegal measures to
return what they believed they deserved. The majority of white, working class American men
found Prohibition to be somewhat of a tactic to control the masses of unruly immigrants who
commonly crowded the city streets. Although Prohibition was the main source of the tension,
other factors such as the Great Migration and racially segregated groups such as the Ku Klux
Klan also contributed to the cultural changes.
Expanding the automotive industry and the lifestyle of owning cars directed many of
those in the 20s to new interests. Having the freedom to go where you want, when you want
and to not be limited by your horse tiring out. Writers such as Jarod Kintz referred to the change
in their books I drive a car thats covered in fur, because before the automobile, there was the
horse. (Kintz 98). With the growing industry being the steam powered machinery and the
assembly line concept, the production values were limitless and productivity of these markets
were skyrocketing.
From an entertainment standpoint, the new era of entertaining was coming. The first two
radio shows were broadcasted in both Detroit and Pittsburgh creating an effective way to
produce entertainment for everyone with a radio to tune into. Enabling broadcasts nationwide via
sound was a miraculous step forward in the communication agency. Owen Young expresses the
change via radio show [It] has helped to create a vast new audience of a magnitude which was
never dreamed of This audience, invisible but attentive, differs not only in size but in kind
from any audience the world has ever known. It is in reality a linking-up of millions of homes

London 3
(Young). The changes of the 20s were as one could call the Cultural Civil War and they both
have and will continue to be expressed in the future.

Works Cited
History Staff "The Roaring Twenties." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 23
Mar. 2015.

London 4
Zeitz, Joshua. "The Roaring Twenties." The Roaring Twenties. Gilder Lehrman, 2007. Web. 23
Mar. 2015.
Christie, Agatha. Murder on the Links. Toronto: Bantam, 1985. Print.